


Going to the Zoo

by Selenay



Series: Assorted Fictional Recollections (AKA the prompt fics) [10]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Meet-Cute, Parent Clint Barton, Parent Phil Coulson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 01:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/pseuds/Selenay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hi," the man said, still displaying that crooked smile. It was doing odd, fluttery things to Phil's insides. "I'm Clint. You must be Skye's dad."</p>
<p>Clint thrust out a hand, and Phil took automatically. </p>
<p>"Phil. Phil Coulson," he said. "Your daughter isn't shy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going to the Zoo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raiining](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raiining/gifts).



> Written for the AU meme going around Tumblr. Raiining sent me this awesome prompt (a little embellished from the original in the meme!): _parents meeting when they take their kids to class au BECAUSE KATIE AND SKYE COULD BE THEIR KIDS AND THEY MEET ON LIKE THE FIRST DAY OF DAYCARE and obviously this will lead to the end of civilization as we know it, but Phil is like WOW WHO IS THE HOT GUY LOOK FOR A RING and clint is like WHOA WHO IS THE HOT GUY CHECK FOR A RING._

Phil knelt down in front of Skye to straighten her sunhat. "Are you sure about this?"

She fixed him with a look far too old for her five years. She'd obviously picked it up from her Uncle Nick. "Yes, Daddy. I want you to go on the school trip with me."

"You know that I'll be looking after the other kids, too?"

"You said so." She screwed up her nose. "Three times. I counted."

The sunhat still looking slightly crooked, but Phil gathered her to him anyway for a quick hug. It looked even more askew when he released her. Skye didn't give him a chance to fiddle with it anymore; she grabbed his hand and began towing him towards the group gathered around the coach instead.

Phil scrambled to his feet and followed, fully aware that she'd just keep pulling until he did it or fell over. Skye knew her own mind better than he did, most days.

A girl with long black hair tied up in with purple ribbon separated from the group and ran towards them, shrieking something in that high-pitched way all little girls seemed to learn before they turned three. It hurt Phil's ears. He hadn't had enough coffee to cope with that level of excited little girl chatter.

There might not be enough coffee in the world.

Skye dropped his hand to take her friend's, which was apparently an important element in the whole bounce-shriek-babble _thing_ they needed to do.

A man jogged up behind them, scrubbing his fingers through his dirty blond hair until it stood up in untidy spikes. Phil's mouth went dry. The man had excellent muscle structure. Really, very impressive.

"Hi," the man said sheepishly, before glaring down at the girl still bouncing with Skye. "Kate, what did we say about running off?"

Kate and Skye stopped bouncing. Two pairs of blue eyes peered up at the man. Kate flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Don't do it?"

"Yup, that's what we said. What did you just do?"

"I didn't run far!"

"Which would matter if I said 'don't run off very far', but I didn't."

Kate pouted. "Sorry. Do we still get to go to the zoo?"

There was a long, tense wait. Phil hid a smile, because he could already see the answer in the man's eyes. It wasn't fair to ruin another parent's moment, though. Not when he'd done the same thing to Skye a few times over the years. Those moments where it felt like the trip really might be cancelled sometimes worked wonders for a child's ability to remember the rules.

For the next hour, anyway.

With a deep sigh, the man gestured to the group of chattering kids. "Fine. Yes. We're still going to the zoo. You go and join the rest of your kind while I apologise to your friend's dad for your impression of a rabid chimpanzee."

Both children whooped and bounced away to join their friends. They were quickly lost in the sea of tiny shifting bodies beside the coach. Apparently Skye's green and orange hat was the in thing for all the kids this summer.

"Hi," the man said, still displaying that crooked smile. It was doing odd, fluttery things to Phil's insides. "I'm Clint. You must be Skye's dad."

Clint thrust out a hand, and Phil took automatically. 

"Phil. Phil Coulson," he said. "Your daughter isn't shy."

"She's a lot of things, but shy isn't one of them. She talks about your kid a lot, though."

Phil wracked his brain, trying to remember all the names Skye had mentioned in the months since she started school. There were a lot. He still hadn't worked out whether Jemma, Fitz, Leo, and Fizzy-immons (which, on reflection, seemed an unlikely name) were four different people or not. "Skye might have talked about your daughter, but I get a little lost in the narratives sometimes."

Clint chuckled. "Mile a minute, no pause for breath, until you think she'll pass out one day?"

"Something like that."

"Kate does that all the time," Clint said. "Throws a dozen names at me, and expects me to remember all of them and which one owns the best Lego castle. But she mentions Skye's name a lot, so I figure that's got to mean something."

"Skye's good at making friends," Phil said.

"I can see that. Did she volunteer you for this?"

"No," Phil said. "A friend did. Nick. He works at the school."

Clint lifted his eyebrows. "Nick Fury? Terrifying dude with an eye patch?"

"Ah. You've met him."

"Kind of hard to avoid meeting the principal when my kid set up a betting pool on day two," Clint said.

"Ouch." 

Phil winced sympathetically, and Clint's sheepish grin appeared again. It made Phil's stomach do the fluttery thing again. It was going to get incredibly inconvenient if Clint turned out to be married.

That was when Phil realised he was still holding Clint's hand, although now it was less of a handshake and more of a...something else. Something that involved a thumb rubbing over his knuckle, which at least meant that he wasn't the only one responsible for the extended hand holding.

Phil swallowed, glancing over at the group of kids now lining up to get on the coach. "We should probably get over there."

Clint checked over his shoulder, and there was just the slightest hint of a slump in his shoulders. "Yeah, guess we should."

They didn't move for another long moment. Phil tried to surreptitiously glance down to check Clint's fingers, but there seemed to be rings on most of them, which didn't help.

The coach doors opened with a hiss, and Phil reluctantly admitted that they'd delayed as much as possible. He carefully extracted his hand from Clint's, which earned him a quickly suppressed frown that made his breath catch for a moment.

They didn't say anything as they walked back to the group and smiled at Ms. Lewis, the first grade teacher, who looked relieved even though there seemed to be two other parents already on the bus. Both were women, though, and there were boys in the group. Maybe she was just thinking about restroom breaks at the zoo.

Or perhaps she was just relieved that Clint was there to wrangle his daughter.

Getting the children settled and belted into their seats took a while, but eventually they were all secure and Phil sank down in his seat near the front gratefully. The coach had just lurched into motion when someone sat down next to him.

Clint's solidly muscled body was warm against his side, and Phil not-very-casually made sure his left hand was out on display, resting on the book he'd brought in case there was any downtime.

"So, do you think your kid would want a playdate with mine?" Clint asked, as they pulled out into the busy morning traffic. "Maybe in that coffee shop on Main?"

"The one with the train set in the back?" Phil asked, feeling a smile pull at the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah. The one with the trains." Clint grinned. "Pretty sure they couldn't do too much damage there. And the coffee's not bad."

Phil willed his heart to stop missing beats. It was distracting. "Skye likes that place."

"Kate likes Skye, so that works out," Clint said. "Are you free tomorrow?"

"We are."

"Then it's a date."

It was the way Clint said it, warm and a little hopeful, that allowed Phil to hope they were talking about more than just a playdate for the girls. 

He smiled and nodded. "It's a date."


End file.
